


Snow Lands On Top

by dreamerhennessy



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - Suzanne Collins
Genre: But mentions of everyone else, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Mostly just mentions - Freeform, Post-Canon, Reminiscing, The only person actually in the fic is Coriolanus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-21
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-18 14:55:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29611125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamerhennessy/pseuds/dreamerhennessy
Summary: Dr. Gaul’s voice was ringing in his head, it was usually ringing in his head. Ever since the 10th Hunger Games, she stayed fresh in his mind.--The newly elected President Snow remembered Dr. Gaul's comment about there being a master copy of the footage of the 10th Hunger Games. He needs to watch it.Rated T just for canon-compliant violence/mentions of canon violent events.
Relationships: Lucy Gray Baird/Coriolanus Snow, Sejanus Plinth & Coriolanus Snow
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15





	Snow Lands On Top

**Author's Note:**

> i finally finished reading this and my brain was like,,, time to write
> 
> anyways i miss sejanus and lucy gray

Dr. Gaul’s voice was ringing in his head, it was usually ringing in his head. Ever since the 10th Hunger Games, she stayed fresh in his mind.

He used to hate it, but now he loved it. Her advice, her dark wit, her expansive knowledge always came in handy - especially now that he progressed as a Gamemaker, as he furthered his political career. She had even told him during his schooling that she always viewed Coriolanus as a perfect successor to her, and a perfect specimen of the truth of the human psyche. Of what we truly are. Of what we can become in the dark.

Coriolanus wanted to forget what he had done, the people that he had killed. The people he had loved and betrayed. Sejanus. Lucy Gray. He wanted to forget it all. But she changed that.

“Use it, Snow. You did those things because you knew it’s what you needed to do. They’re behind you now, beneath you. Step on them to get higher.”

And that’s what he did. Snow lands on top, and they were buried under. No one could see the blood, the bodies, all they could see was the pure, undriven snow. Which was exactly how he wanted it to be.

The Grandma’am always said he was going to be president, that was her goal for him. She raised him to be president, and now that day had come. President Snow, sworn in. President Snow with access to everything.

And all that he could think of was Dr. Gaul telling him there was a master copy of the 10th Games hidden away, for her own sick amusement. 

Very few people now remember those Games, the one he won. The one he helped create the Hunger Games in the way they are today. 

He had to see them.

Coriolanus settled himself in an overstuffed chair before a large screen, commanding an officer to start the tapes before forcing them out of the room. No one was to see this, no one was to remember his failure from cheating. No one was to remember Lucy or Sejanus or Marcus or any of the other lives lost. He would make sure of that.

He sat there, watching hours and hours of footage. The reapings. The news coverages. The interviews.

When  _ she  _ came on the screen for her interview, his long dead heart gave a small leap. There was still something about her, something that made him feel alive. Something that made him feel like that young man again, so naive and downtrodden and passively determined. Back then, he was too focused on pretending they were still rich, he believed anything that could help.

And that led him to believing in her.

The way the colors on her skirt stood out against her skin still haunted his dreams some nights, and seeing it on the screen made him realize his fantasies and memories had downplayed it. Maybe it was because he only ever saw it in person really, not on the screen. But she looked extra beautiful there. Performing her song for Billy Taupe. 

That made him angry, squeezing the glass in his hand extra hard as he thought about it. Thought about him. The only good thing about him was Coriolanus getting to watch him die.

The Games started and seeing Marcus hanging like he was, it surprised him that it made him feel a twinge of sadness. Remembering how much it had hurt Sejanus, especially after he found out they had been childhood friends. He couldn’t imagine the pain he must’ve felt in that moment, it had to be close to what Coriolanus felt when he watched Sejanus’s execution.

As the Games went on, memories flooded back of what he was doing at those times. Of his classmates, either that have passed or have faded into obscurity.

And when he saw the snakes, he started to seethe. 

The way they worked with her to get her the win, what led to his downfall. His cheat. He only wanted to win, he needed the attention. The money. The Plinth Prize.

But in the end, he got the ultimate Plinth Prize. They took him in like a son, they paid for them to keep their apartment and they took care of the Grandma’am. They made the Snows food and gave them spending money, him most of all. They paid his tuition. They made him their heir.

And once they died, a few years after their son, he got all of their fortunes. 

The official ruling was that their healths had dropped after they lost their son. Sir went first. Ma soon after. The grief of losing her family too much for her heart to bear.

Only Coriolanus knew the truth. 

Some in the Districts believed in an afterlife, he hoped that they were right so that Ma was reunited with Sejanus. 

When the videos were done, he called back in his officer. “Burn it,” he instructed. This footage would never see the light of day again, he would make sure of it. The 10th Hunger Games, all those lost that year, would be forgotten. Burn to embers.

And on those embers, snow will land on top.


End file.
